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Firouzja's Triveni Continental Kings Win 2nd Global Chess League
The Triveni Continental Kings took the trophy for a second year in a row. Photo: Rakesh Kulkarni/Chess.com.

Firouzja's Triveni Continental Kings Win 2nd Global Chess League

Colin_McGourty
Colin_McGourty
Staff
| 53 | Chess Event Coverage

GM Alireza Firouzja's Triveni Continental Kings have retained their Tech Mahindra Global Chess League title after defeating GM Anish Giri's PBG Alaskan Knights 2-0 in the final. Firouzja thanked "key player" GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, the only player to win both games, while GM Wei Yi is the only player to win the League twice—he'd suffered three losses to GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, but won the fourth game just when it mattered most!

The view from the stands! Photo: Michal Walusza/GCL.

Giri's PBG Alaskan Knights had been dominating the second season of the Global Chess League, winning eight of their 10 matches in the group stage, including beating the Triveni Continental Kings twice (15-3 and 12-8), but the final showdown was different. The scores were reset for the two-match final, and, as Firouzja put it, "Before, you could chill a bit more, but now it was all or nothing!"

Before, you could chill a bit more, but now it was all or nothing!

—Alireza Firouzja

Final Match 1: Triveni Continental Kings 9-7 PBG Alaskan Knights

The first match already made it clear that the balance of power had shifted, as the Triveni Continental Kings pulled off a narrow victory.  

The victory was led on the top board by Firouzja, who had been the player of the tournament and scored 10 points more than Giri—but Giri was also the one "icon" player he hadn't beaten.

Firouzja seized his chance to change that, however, as he played a powerful game featuring a fine exchange sacrifice.


That's our Game of the Day, which has been annotated by GM Dejan Bojkov below:

Chess.com Game of the Day Dejan Bojkov

One three-point win is seldom enough to win a match, however, and in this case it was more than canceled out by a four-point win for Abdusattorov, who applied pressure until Wei cracked and lost an endgame in 97 moves.

Abdusattorov continued to dominate against Wei Yi. Photo: Michal Walusza/GCL.

By that point, however, it no longer mattered, since Kosteniuk had dominated and finally beaten GM Tan Zhongyi, even if she'd given her opponent some chances near the end.

That left the Alaskan Knights needing to win the second match on demand to force a playoff, as a full house looked on.

They didn't manage, though once again it was close! 

Final Match 2: PBG Alaskan Knights 7-13 Triveni Continental Kings

On the top board, Giri got his revenge, though it was a strange game. Firouzja credited his team for letting him play in his hyper-aggressive style, commenting: "If the other guys were not good enough, I’d have to play more solid; I couldn’t play my style. The fact that I knew that even if I lose, we still have chances helped a lot."

Giri hit back straight away. Photo: Michal Walusza/GCL.

Brinksmanship on the board is one thing, but when Firouzja used five minutes on 22...Bf8 and left himself almost 10 minutes behind on the clock, it was taking things too far. In what followed, he found himself a full rook up, for a while, but it meant nothing since Giri only needed to avoid a forced draw or checkmate to clinch the win.

Firouzja had nevertheless enjoyed playing without an increment in London, commenting, "I think still if you are a fast player, you can survive here and show good results." He didn't need to have too many regrets, since as he told IM Tania Sachdev: "It’s amazing how chess can be so exciting. It was a crazy match at the end. I messed up a lot, but that’s the whole point of the team game, that the other teammates come to save you!"

That's the whole point of the team game, that the other teammates come to save you!

—Alireza Firouzja

First there was GM Valentina Gunina, who had earlier drawn and then won a game against IM Alina Kashlinskaya that could have gone either way. That was soon canceled out by GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, however, who defeated his good friend GM Teimour Radjabov.

Alina Kashlinskaya won an award as the female player of the event, but it came after a bitter loss in the final match. Photo: Michal Walusza/GCL.

The real hero was the usually dependable Wei Yi, who had lost three games in a row to Abdusattorov, the only undefeated player in the whole event. The Uzbek star seemed to have dug himself out of a difficult position, but 79.Rd4+? was a losing mistake.

That put the Triveni Continental Kings into the lead with one game remaining, but if Tan could beat Kosteniuk, she'd win the title for the Alaskan Knights. That was extremely unlikely based on the position on the board, but perfectly possible based on the seconds both players were playing on. It was a fitting end to the tournament as Kosteniuk held her nerve and finally finished with a fork to clinch victory.

Wei Yi stayed to congratulate his fellow hero, Kosteniuk. Photo: Michal Walusza/GCL.

Firouzja heaped praise on Kosteniuk while watching the replay of her win, commenting: "It’s just amazing that she again managed to save our team. It was not the first time!"

That meant that the Triveni Continental Kings had retained the title they won in Dubai in 2023, but the curiosity was that Wei was the only surviving player from that team after the 2024 draft had been completed. It was also noteworthy that Firouzja had only been able to play as a late replacement for GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, who was meant to lead the team but had failed to receive a U.K. visa. 

Of team captain Loek van Wely, Firouzja had commented: "Our captain makes a lot of jokes, sometimes unpleasant jokes, but forgive him!" Photo: Michal Walusza/GCL.

Nevertheless, the performance in the final made it a well-deserved win. All that was left was to lift the trophy! 

For the Alaskan Knights, it had been a case of so near, yet so far, with Giri vowing the team would be back. His fan club was in good voice!

That's all for the 2024 Tech Mahindra Global Chess League, but there's no break in the chess action. The U.S. Chess Championships are just getting started in St. Louis, while back in London, the 16-player WR Chess Masters Cup starts Monday, with an unusual format that sees the players face off each day in two classical games and potentially one armageddon. Just four days will whittle those 16 players down to one winner. 

How to rewatch?

You can watch the event on Kick. Games from the event can be viewed on our events page.


The Tech Mahindra Global Chess League 2024 consisted of a preliminary group stage and a final contested by the top two teams. In each match, members of the same team played with the same color. All games had a 20-minute time control without increment.

Previous reports:

Colin_McGourty
Colin McGourty

Colin McGourty led news at Chess24 from its launch until it merged with Chess.com a decade later. An amateur player, he got into chess writing when he set up the website Chess in Translation after previously studying Slavic languages and literature in St. Andrews, Odesa, Oxford, and Krakow.

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